Posted by Bill on August 15, 1999 at 06:27:43:
In Reply to: AGH,never thought of that/tuba cleaning? posted by Antonio on August 13, 1999 at 23:21:36:
O.k.
here it is,
Put your tuba on a good towel (Oh by the way much to my roomates dismay I did this in the living room not too long ago, so no need for a big bathtub). this is what you need
1. A good strong twine (Rope etc. preferrably not the "Hairy twine")
2. A strong pair of scissors
3. A regular sponge
4. A bowl (Size is not imporartant, or so I hear)
5. Some rubbing Alcohol.
Take out all of your slides and valves, it's best to put them on a paper towel and write down which valves they go to on the paper. You can clean the vavles with a brush or by hand, MAKE SURE NOT TO GET THE CORKS AND FELTS WET!
Put a little alcohol in the bowl.
Cut a small piece of sponge (2 in. wide possibly, depending on your horn).
Cut a piece of string about 6 feet or so.
tie one end of the rope to the sponge (Make it good and tight)
Put the sponge in the alcohol
Put the string into the tuning slide (NOT THE END WITH THE SPONGE ON IT)Hold onto that. put your mouthpiece into the tuning slide and blow real quick (Tounge hard etc.) the srting will soon come out the lead pipe.
Take the string and tie it to the sponge, now pull it through a few times, each time it goes through, wash it in alcohol (If you want you can cut the alcohol with some water, then the smell isn't as strong).
Now go to the 1st valve, drop the string though and loop it up the other side and celan that one, and so on. It sounds harder than it is. When you finish with all of the vavles clean the slides like this. When you are done most of your horn will have been cleaned out. It's not as effective as a chemical cleaning, but it gets all of the gunk out of your horn. I do it about once every 6 or 8 months and it takes about an hour or two. The more you do it, the faster and easier it is. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me. p.s. brushing your teeth before you play is a really big plus and try not to drink coffee and practice (that's a tough one for me) it gets real nasty if you do.
Bill